Alameda Point Entrepreneurs: Community Bible Church

The only faith organization on the former Naval base, Community Bible Church occupies a spacious building on West Trident Avenue. Part of the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination, it has had a home at Alameda Point since 2001.

Pastor Steve Kirwin is a married father of four who grew up in San Francisco and attended Balboa High School. In his late twenties, while working as a jeweler, he first heard the calling to become a minister. He took a mail correspondence course through the church and eventually took the helm of his own congregation.

Now, Kirwin ministers to a flock of about 25 believers in a squat, drafty building that he says once housed a Liquor Barn. His favorite aspect of his Alameda congregation, he says, is the cultural diversity.

“Growing up in the City, it was very diverse,” he says. “I like that. In America there is still a racial divide in church, and I like that in this church we have people from all walks of life. It teaches you to love and care about people and be less narrow-minded.”